Legislative mandates: Implications for changes in school psychology training programs.

Abstract

Public Laws 93-380 and 94-142, as well as many state statutes that assure full opportunities for all handicapped children, have directly affected school psychological services. School psychologists' skills in diagnosis, intervention, and remediation are being increasingly called on to meet the needs of handicapped children. Because of federal and state legislation, school psychology training programs need to provide their students with additional coursework and/or field experiences to better prepare them for the changes in role demands. In addition, further implications exist for practicing school psychologists. Practitioners need professional continuing education programs to assure that their skills are also adequate to provide psychological services to all handicapped school children. With the implementation of federal and state legislation securing for all the right to full opportunities, school psychologists are again becoming substantially involved in the assessment-remediation process. Actually, however, the legislative mandates with requirements for evaluations, nondiscriminatory assessment and placement procedures, and individualized programs, necessitate skills in areas in which school psychologists typically are not receiving training. Consequently, their competencies are being challenged as adequate to meet the needs of handicapped (Barnett, Note 1; Curtis, Note 2). This does not mean that training programs in school psychology need to give up their focus and major emphases, but they should provide more comprehensive training to better prepare school psychologists to meet the needs of all with handicapping conditions. Training programs in school psychology, of course, reflect the perceived role and functions of the school psychologist. Historically, that role has been closely aligned with the education of with special needs. In fact, the first reports of school psychological services were of clinicians who were determining which could or could not profit from regular classroom instruction (Cutts, 1955). At that time, psychoeducational services required diagnosis and remediation of difficulties, and early training programs likewise reflected these acknowledged school psychological services. Since the Thayer conference in 1954, which documented diagnosis-interventionremediation as well as other school psychological services (Cutts, 1955), several specific models of functioning have been suggested. For the most part, the proposed roles represent functions that go beyond assessment and remediation. For example, Gray (1963) suggested that school psychologists act as change agents, thereby arguing that psychological services should be expanded from a focus on individual case study to a broader, system-wide approach. Reger (1967) took a somewhat different position and proposed educational planning for children as the most valuable school psy